Iran admits to deceiving IAEA, Claims Facilities Sabotaged

A top Iranian official has admitted that his country has provided the IAEA with misleading information about its nuclear program. According to Jack Khoury of Haaretz, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, says Iran has provided the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency with misleading information in order to protect its nuclear program and staff.

Khouryreports that Davani claimed that Iran mislead the IAEA because it felt that it had no other choice. According to Israel Hayom Iran claimed that the IAEA had been “infiltrated” by intelligence agencies, who were keeping track of individuals involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Some of these individuals says Khoury, were nuclear scientists who were assassinated over the past few years. Iran blames Israel for the assassinations. Indeed, Israel Hayom reports that Davani said that the UK’s MI-6 had “gathered information for people, which then exposed [Iranian nuclear scientists] to assassination at the hands of Zionist intelligence agents.”

According to Khoury, Davani says that sometimes Iran made its nuclear program seem weak, while at other times, “We reported issues that made us appear strongly than we really were.”

However, says Khoury, Abbasi-Davani rejected the notion that Iran was blocking inspectors from entering its nuclear facilities.

In spite of Iran’s efforts to defend its nuclear program, The Hindu Business Line reports that Iran’s nuclear facility was recently “hit by new attempts at sabotage.” The Indian paper says that saboteurs had targeted power lines connected to Iranian nuclear facilities. According to The Jewish Press, the downed power lines were located between Qom and the Fordow nuclear centrifuge facility. The saboteurs also targeted Iranian centrifuges; however, Iran says that it had survived the attack on its power lines because it could rely on its battery backup. Meanwhile, according to The Business Line, Iranian workers managed to prevent “tiny explosions” designed to damage Iran’s centrifuges.

The Business Line further reported that Davani noted that these attempts at slowing down Iran’s nuclear progress came just after IAEA inspectors toured one of Iran’s underground facilities. He suggested that this might lend evidence to the idea that the IAEA had been infiltrated with western spies.